This was posted on the Pacific Crest Trailside Reader. Public Comments are being requested by July 10th to save these 22 monuments and 5 Marine National Monuments. I have taken directly from the Reader’s May 31st post. PLEASE take a moment to make your comment. I’ve made mine, stressing the importance of needing space, not congestion of urban sprawl. And of course, how healing, inside and outside, these areas of nature are:

The Department of Interior led by Ryan Zinke is reviewing 22 National Monuments and 5 Marine National Monuments, created or expended between the years 1996 – 2016. What is at risk? These Monuments may be reduced in size or eliminated all together. Three of the Monuments encompass stretches of the PCT – Sand to Snow National Monument (includes, among other features, Whitewater River), San Gabriel Mountains National Monument (includes, among other features, Mt. Baden-Powell), and Cascade Siskiyou National Monument (includes, among other features, Pilot Rock near Ashland, Oregon). There is a 60-day public comment period (ending July 10). It is critical that PCT users make their feelings known. You can do so by:

2) under the ‘What’s Trending’ column on the left side of the screen, you can double click on Review of Certain National Monuments Established Since 1996; Notice of Opportunity for Public Comment

3) click on “Comment Now”

4) make your comment

Here is what I wrote: ( I am not sure who this author is…it was part of the post).

At the age of 62, I finished walking the Pacific Crest Trail. The Trail passes through three of the Monuments under review: Cascade Siskiyou, Sand to Snow, and San Gabriel Mountains. Just this past April I was again walking through the mountains of Southern California from the Mexican border to the San Jacintos, four years after first backpacking in these arid mountains. What is striking to me is just how aggressively development continues to push, push, push into these fragile desert landscapes. Horse ranches, greenhouses, homes, even housing developments and the associated roads, utility lines, and commercial establishments have sprung up where they did not exist even 4 years ago. Once development occurs, it is extremely difficult to undo it. The Sand and Snow and San Gabriel Mountains Monuments offer modest but critical protection from the sprawling reaches of Los Angeles and the Palm Springs/Palm Desert communities.

The landscape is extraordinarily vulnerable. The desert holds its scars for a very long time. You can see this impact as you walk near the Whitewater River in the Sand to Snow Monument. Or, from the top of Mt. Baden-Powell, in the San Bernardino Mountains Monument where the layer of pollution from the L.A. Basin often offers a palpable layer extending far to the southwest.

While not surrounded by massive population centers like the Sand to Snow and San Gabriel Mountains, the Cascade Siskiyou Monument is threatened by the rapidly growing Ashland-Medford communities of the Rogue River Valley. Homes are pushing their way farther and farther into the mountains around these communities. I believe that the Cascade Siskiyou Monument not only protect iconic features like Pilot Rock, but helps preserve the recreational opportunities for this region of southern Oregon.

I have lived on the North Coast of California just south of Redwood National Park for more than three decades. I think that the creation of Redwood National Park provides an object lesson when insufficient land is protected. The Park, in deference to local logging companies, initially limited much of the protection to a narrow strip of old growth redwood along Redwood Creek (named the ‘worm’ for its size and shape). Quickly we learned, as surrounding lands were aggressively logged and Redwood Creek clogged with sediment that we had to preserve the broader eco-system … not just a small patch of trees. By the time we learned that, the cost of buying back the watershed and its restoration was immense.

Do not give up these Monuments for short-term employment and temporary gain. I would love to walk some of these lands with you as I know that you agree with what I have seen and learned.

Week one with Team Foot Stuff

We’re five days into our six month trek, and we’re loving every minute of it.

Okay, maybe not the extreme hiker pains, and the occasional steep up or down hill, but the bad moments on the trail make the good ones that much better.

On day one we ended up connecting with a group of hikers at Lake Morena, mile 20. There were about thirty hikers at the camp ground that night but a group of nine of us seemed to have an immediate connection. Brooke and Don we had hiked with from mile one starting that day, and with their energy we found it easy to get all the way to Lake Morena. The remaining six had started about an hour after us, and we met them as we shared beers and goodies from a trail angel, Rod, who was staying for a week at Lake Morena to give back to the hiker community.

The first week has been a good array of emotions- lots of pain in various areas of our body, tons of laughs amongst our group self named “Team Foot Stuff”, and incredible views and scenery along the entire way. It’s hard not to enjoy every moment of the trail, it’s already chalking up to be an incredible experience.

We’re resting at mile 77 today in Julian. We’ll try to reach Warner Springs by Monday and take a nero. Until then, happy trails!

My Summer Job

When our adult daughter told us months ago she and her boyfriend were going to thru-hike the PCT, I don’t think there could have been anyone more excited. A question she was often asked was, “What do your parents think?” “They’re joining me!” We hope to hike with them in June for two weeks in the Sierras, as long as the unusually high snow pack doesn’t alter our plans.

As much as we wanted to, we restrained ourselves from giving unsolicited advice, most of the time that it is. We wanted her to have her own experience in preparing for the trail. We certainly will be living vicariously, if not with some jealousy, the trail life through her. When she asked if I would do her resupply, there was absolutely no hesitation in saying a resounding “Yes!” I actually felt honored to be a part, any part, of her experience.

A friend recently commented in an email, “…how cool is it when our kids take up a passion that is already dear to our own hearts, thus confirming that 1) the apple doesn’t fall from the tree and 2) maybe we didn’t do such a bad job after all.” Indeed, maybe we didn’t do such a bad job.

Alexa and Cooper volunteered at the Earth Fair on Sunday afternoon. Since we were already half way to Campo, we fed them a “last supper” and dropped off a giddy Alexa and Cooper at the Southern Terminus that night. Their plan was to camp overnight and start early the next morning. At no time did I have any fears of her adventure. But suddenly, out of nowhere, on the drive home, I felt fear. What if she gets robbed? What if, more likely, she gets attacked by a pack of wolves? Where did those thoughts come from? Maybe I hadn’t done my due diligence as a mom to worry. Fortunately those thoughts were short lived. I have read the predictions that because of the unusally high snow pack, more are expected to drop out this year in the walk to Canada. There is no shame in that if that happens to anyone. She is a strong, goal driven, independent young woman and can handle herself well. But either way, we are immensely proud of her.

We will repost her post. She was accepted as a guest blogger on TheTrek. You can follow her along as well here: